Chiswick School Allotment And The 'Gardener Ninjas'
How teamwork resulted in sprucing up a great local resource
|
The Chiswick school allotment opposite the school, is a project spearheaded by English teacher, Miss Wyatt. The school acquired the plot in March last year. It was extremely overgrown and initially a group of teachers gave up their weekend to clear it so that students could begin to cultivate the beds. It was a great success and they managed to grow many different varieties of tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, kale and even watermelon.
The aim of the project is to engage and support children who may struggle to settle down in class or those suffering with mental health issues. In addition it is to be used as a resource for the school's eco-committee and for science classes. It has enormous potential and is a wonderful space full of fruit trees, a green house and plenty of space to grow food. So far the children involved have really enjoyed their time there and have taken on the challenge with enthusiasm, even happily spreading the manure!
(l-r) Owen, a chef and Andi, a parent volunteer
Over the summer holiday, the plot became overgrown, so we enlisted the help of the GoodGym, a group of runners who meet at the town hall on Wednesdays and run to a local community project to lend a hand. They arrived in the evening: an army of gardener ninjas in trainers with head torches and a flashlight. Assisted by some parent volunteers and Owen Kenworthy, a fantastic chef involved in setting up a new local restaurant focused on sustainability and community outreach, the team blitzed the site in 40 minutes. The beds were turned over, weeds and brambles removed and paths re-laid with wood chipping. It is now much more manageable. A big thank you to the GoodGym.
When the new restaurant opens in the spring we are hoping to supply them with some of our fresh organic produce and it is hoped that the children will be able to do some work experience and possibly even enjoy the occasional meal there. Watch this space for more on this exciting local community project
Find Articles Like This Useful? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
October 15, 2019
